I'm looking to finally upgrade my stock speakers in my 03 Sonoma. I found an article written by an installer that makes a suggestion about speaker placement in an S-10 (same as a Sonoma). I was wondering if somebody could read this and tell me if they agree or if there is something that will sound better than this setup. The paragraph below describes what he did. I found this on this webpage: http://carsound.com/articles/publish/article_264.shtml
"Getting back to sound, the standard S10 has accommodations for 6-inch woofers in the doors and 4-inc speakers in the dashboard. I experimented with a TON of different speaker and mounting configurations, but I settled on a 6-inch midbass woofer in each door with 4-inch coaxial speakers in the dash locations with the speakers mounted inboard, almost aiming toward the rear view mirror. With careful attention to tweeter-midrange position in the dash, you can get AWESOME imaging and KILLER sound. I'm using MB Quart RSC 110 4-inch coaxials in the dash with MB Quart RWC 160 6-inch midbass drivers in the doors (not that I'm endorsing any speaker over another). This set-up provides great sound quality without having to heavily modify the factory locations or to fabricate kick panel enclosures. "
Actually, that can work very well, depending on the processing you're using. Check out Robert Hillgartners (sp?) S-10 on elitecaraudio.com The difference between those compact trucks and a car is that they are very narrow, there isn't a lot of difference in the pathlengths from one side of the dash to another.
Anyway, how do I mount the dash speakers "inboard"? Do I make something or just mount one side higher? On Roberts s-10 i can't really tell what he did. It's obviously custom, but what can I do with keeping it mostly stock? Does that make sense, I mean, how can I angle the coaxials differently?
You would make a form of baffle to angle the drivers, pointing them in the direction you would want. This could be a baffle you made out of wood, then you would cut dash (if necessary) to clear the motor structure.